EricWiberg

Very brief update... a 5 week hiatus away from ship building, much like last year at this time. However, like last year, I get to read books and review all kinds of SR blogs, which really helps me visualize. And.. this book arrived! As Marc has stated, it is really quite interesting and should prove a tremendous resource!

That makes a lot of sense, Marc... I will give it a try!

And that is it for the cutwater/head pieces for now. I cleaned up the upper knee; you will note that I left an extra long extension above the figurehead until the final assembly - better to be too long than too short! The first photo shows both pieces inserted into the stem "thickener" that my left thumb is on. Based on the St Phillipe monograph, the Heller kit stem is too thin. So to get approximately the same thickness as the SP monograph, I needed to add 1mm thickness at the keel, tapering up to 4mm extra in the upper knee area.... the figurehead is not in its final position, of course. The positioning in the photo below is not perfect, but I overlaid the Heller kit pieces on modifications to show that I was trying to get the head longer and lower... as Marc LaGuardia would say... that "Dutchy" look In my minds eye, this is the look that I was chasing after. Time will tell on how closely I was able to mimic that "Dutchy" look. One of the "Dutchy" characteristics seems to be that the rise of the cutwater is almost straight, at least until the gentle sweep up into the figurehead. I tried to add a bit of a curve on the cutwater, and also tried to bulk it up, anticipating that the extra mass up front would contribute to a longer and lower look. We will see when things start getting glued together! Finally, a crude aprroximation of what the head will look like... sans tie wraps!

Well, I am close to a hard stop on the cutwater/head templates. The cutwater shape should be good to go. It doesn't make sense to fine tune it until the hull is glued together, as I have an aditional insert to thicken the stem. Those really need to be glued together tight and inserted into the hull before I can make any final modifications. I think that I have a final shape for the top knee. The convex curve on the underside of the top knee matches the concave curve on the cutwater. Finally, I made some spacer tabs that I temporarily glued to the cutwater/upper knee. These tabs maintain the precise spacing of 5.5mm that I have between the pair of bottom wales. I will have to do some precise carving to ensure a tight fit with the figurehead, but again... it doesn't make sense to do that until the hull and decks are actually glued together. You make note the inlet that I cut into the top knee where it will fit into the back of the figurehead. I have hemmed and hawed on this, but it seems to be the only way to have the top knee have a tight fit to the back of the figurehead AND also follow the general sweep upward of the cutwater to where it terminates at the figurehead.

The book has not!

Haven't been able to get any ship time for ten days! After numerous tweaks, I finally settled on a cardboard template design for the cutwater. I need the cutwater to be 6.5mm at its thickest, so I used eight templates of various Evegreen sheet thickness to start laminating together. Finally, I ended up with three main pieces... two outer pieces in the bottom of the photo are identical to the piece that I am holding, except that this piece has an extension tab added to it to allow me to insert the tab into the hull for greater strength (just like the kit design). Finally, with the figurehead taped in place and the cutwater inserted into the hull through the stem extension piece...... I have a cutwater. Certainly there is a lot of faring and fine-tuning to do, but the basic structure is set. Having this in place will make designing the upper knee and head rails mucvh, much easier.

Here is that Plate from St Phillipe... at the bottom center (below the "A") is a straight on view of the head/cutwater. The plank labeled "c" is between the upper/lower knees and seems to indicate a thinner width board/plank... as opposed to there being nothing at all between the knees.

Thank you, Marc.. and I believe that the other masts will - eventually - have such a coming around them as well? Also, regarding the space between the upper and lower knees... was this always 1) completely open and filled with a carving, or 2) or was the gap not.open, but filled with a thinner board that carvings/frieze was then applied to? I think the St Phillipe monograph suggests a thinner board in the gap that carvings are then affixed to?

I needed to complete one final item before I could start refining the head... a solid base for my wooden bowsprit mast. I sawed a fine slot in the base of the mast and inserted a piece of styrene to duplicate the tab on the kit mast. This tab snaps into a square of styrene attached to the front edge of the middle gun deck.... the kit slot for the bowsprit mast is faintly visible to the left of the white tab, showing that the mast base moved forward about 1 inch. Then I used a laser level to make sure the base of the mast was locked onto the middle gun deck in the right position before I cemented the base in (I may even beef this up further with some ApoxieScuplt). Finally... a rough template for the head is held in place... I have some adjusting to do! My goal... develop and fit as much of the head in advance as I possibly can.

And the main structure of the beakhead bulkhead is complete. Finishing the timberheads and cap rail will be easy. I tacked the red gun port lids in place just for a visual aid. I was simply going to scribe them in, but an even simpler method is just to cut the openings in and drop the gun port lids in, and they will be closed anyways. I may make a little frame on the inside bottom of the f'ocsle deck that I can simply slide the catheads into when that time comes (2026?!). That leaves the "decoration"... the monogram La Reyne cartouche over each door, a resin casting of the Central Arms of France positioned in the center between the two rails, the continuation of the broadside listons d'or onto the bulkhead drift rail. And of course, learning how to make an egg and dart moulding for the wide rail that mates with the top upper wale. And.... waiting for the Jan Pieper book to glean any further ideas! One note that might seem to border on heresy... I will NOT be adding any steps/ladders as the kit beakhead bulkhead has. First, it strikes me as nigh impossible to clamber up those steps up and steep and high bulkhead, especially in any kind of weather action... I would just use the doors! Second, I looked at drawings of Royal Duc and Royal Louis in the 1660's/70's time frame, and I do not see any steps. And I will have a large, flat and uninterrupted area for a field of fluer de lis.... After the cap rail/timberheads are in, I can fiddle with the ornamental items, but now I can turn most of my attention to finishing the head itself. Oh... and also finishing the bowsprit. Oh - and thank you for zip ties! I had been using my 45 year old kit decks in the hull as I was checking for fit of the beakhead bulkhead and other items. I decided I better put the new decks that I will be using in place to check for fit, and zip ties helped tighten and hold everything in place.

Ahhh, thank you, Marc... even more things to think about for the future! My SR already seems more white than the original black (i.e. polystyrene revisions). what is some more white?!

Marc, I am very interested in burying myself in this book! I am just about to cut in the cathead openings under the f'ocsle deck... and there is so much room for ornamentation/decoration on the beakhead bulkhead alone. I believe that Dassie had a comment to the effect that SR 1671 "was suddued, but very tasteful.."... ? And that concept changed with SR 1689, as you are showing. To be more precise, I will be curious if with SR 1671, they took advantage of every possible area, like simple door jambs, etc. to decorate.. and the allegories that the decorations were meant to convey. The pictures that you have shown look like you can really see the details. P.S. and I need to look back at what you did with parchment paper!

1) Marc and Marcus.. I also ordered the book. I will actually hold off on decoration details until I can get the book 2) got a bowsprit made from wood! Using the St Phillipe monograph as a guide, a woodworking friend designed a jig for his lathe to reproduce all of the SR masts/yards sometime in the future. Now that I have a bowsprit, I can finished the bulkhead and pivot to the head. I really beefed up the support structures for the bowsprit deck... the bowsprit now will go into the middle gun deck some 20mm ahead of where it anchors in the kit; a simple "foot" that attaches to the middle gun deck should accomplish that. Oh.. starting to put in the two gun ports on the upper gun deck facing forward. It makes sense to me to have them open by swinging sideways as I have seen in some models/drawings, as the cathead beams will be slung above them.

Marcus, thank you for the compliment, but especially the link to this book!

The clinker planking on the beakhead bulkhead is done. Now just the finishing touches and carefully trimming the plank edges for the best fit, and finishing the other woodwork before progressing to the upper bulkhead. So far, so good, though I am pretty sure the French carpenters would have finished their clinker planking before my miniature planking was half done!